C. Wilson was a performer with an exceptional, rich contralto voice, who expanded the boundaries of traditional jazz over more than four decades. Her work intertwined jazz, blues, folk, country, pop music, and R&B. In 2001, Time magazine named her the best American singer.
Read more In Spain – mass protests over the crisis in Ceuta: «Sánchez to jail»
The performer rose to fame in the 1980s, and one of the most important stages of her career began when she signed a contract with the record company Blue Note Records. Her albums Blue Light ’Til Dawn (1993) and New Moon Daughter (1996) received great acclaim. The latter won a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album. She received her second Grammy in 2009 for the album Loverly.
C. Wilson collaborated with many famous musicians – Wynton Marsalis, The Roots, Luther Vandross, Regina Carter, Angélique Kidjo, and others.
She was also one of the key performers of W. Marsalis’s oratorio Blood on the Fields. In 1997, this work became the first jazz piece to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music.
In 2015, C. Wilson released her last studio album Coming Forth by Day, dedicated to jazz legend Billie Holiday.
That same year, she held a special concert at New York’s Apollo Theater, commemorating B. Holiday’s 100th birthday. In 2022, C. Wilson was awarded the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Jazz Master title – one of the highest honors for jazz musicians in the USA.
She came to Lithuania in 2014
The name C. Wilson is well known to Lithuanian jazz fans as well. In 2014, she performed in Lithuania for the first and, apparently, only time – at the Kaunas Jazz festival. On April 27, the performer appeared with her band at the Kaunas Žalgiris Arena.
At that time, the Lithuanian press called her one of the most famous jazz vocalists in the world. Before the concert, C. Wilson also spoke about Lithuania, and her performance in Kaunas was one of the key highlights of that year’s Kaunas Jazz festival.
C. Wilson’s death was also honored by musician Jon Batiste, who said that her voice echoed the American South. Jackson’s mayor John H. Rohm said the city lost an exceptional daughter, and the world – an irreplaceable musical voice.
Read more Lithuanian Industry Expectations Index in August – the lowest this year
